RLC is a protocol used in wireless communication networks to convey user plane or control plane information between a mobile station and a radio access network. When conveying user plane information, the RLC protocol receives a protocol data unit (PDU) from a higher layer known as the logical link control (LLC) layer, where each LLC PDU is associated with a packet flow context (PFC) and is divided into smaller data packets, referred to herein as RLC data blocks for transmission over the wireless communication channel to a receiver. The receiver reassembles the LLC PDU from the received RLC data blocks.
In some scenarios, the RLC protocol entity operating at a transceiver and a receiver may support the transmission and reception of multiple packet data sessions in parallel, whereby multiple PFCs share a common RLC entity. Each PFC has its own packet data protocol (PDP) context, and therefore has its own quality of service (QoS) attributes from which a transmission priority may be derived. When a common RLC entity supports multiple PFCs, the transmitting RLC entity may receive LLC PDUs corresponding to these PFCs asynchronously and generally decides which PFC to service on a per LLC PDU basis, which requires the RLC entity to complete a transmission of an LLC PDU in progress before beginning the transmission of the next LLC PDU. A higher priority LLC PDU may therefore incur undesirable transmission delays while the common RLC entity completes the transmission of a lower priority LLC PDU. Such delays may cause perceivable degradation of the service supported by the higher priority LLC PDU, especially when the lower priority LLC PDU has a significant length.